Getting ready for my financial future

I consider myself a strong and intelligent woman. There is not a lot in this world that truly frightens me, unless we are talking about snakes – they scare the heck out of me.

So why have I not taken the time to prepare myself for the future better than I have? I would like to say it is because of the way I was raised. I think that I was scared.

My Father was a military man and he was assured that when his service was over, he and his wife would be taken care of until the day they died. This meant a good retirement check, good medical benefits and a couple of great places to get food, clothing, etc. at lower prices. I don’t think they ever though that it was important to teach me about what my future would look like.

I don’t blame my parents for not sharing that type of information with me. It is very possible that their generation didn’t think about it much. They had a good job and they knew they would get Social Security.

Times have changed. We can’t always depend on our job providing retirement. It is something we all have to pay more attention to.

A couple of other reasons I didn’t take too much time thinking about what my life would look like when at retirement age was the fear of getting older and death. Why is it that we don’t want to look at the reality of life drastically changing when we are in our 60’s?

Lastly, I don’t like to be talked down to. As a woman, I often feel that men talk to me like I am stupid or incapable of understanding. I had a hard time thinking that I would sit across a big desk from a man that treated me as if everything he said was going in one ear and out the other.

So, what did I do to plan my financial future? Not much for too many years. When the reality of my getting older really started to sink in, I began to look for assistance.

I knew that I wanted to be talked to as an equal. I felt strongly that I wanted to speak with another woman. I wanted someone who would understand what I felt, who didn’t think I was stupid for asking the same question over and over. I wanted the process to be painless.

I received a 1-year free subscription to SUM180. SUM180 is an organization run by women who understand what I want and need to feel secure in my retirement. I was easily able to get a plan that helps me along my way. This plan is great for those of us who are close to retirement age, and also for those, like my daughter, who are just beginning to think about this.

I was a little nervous about beginning the process, but I quickly realized I didn’t need a rocket science degree to fill out the paperwork. I completed the forms in about 30 minutes and was happy that I could easily answer all of the questions.

When I received my SUM180 plan, I was pleased to see that I wasn’t being sold any additional products. I worried that the plan would tell me I “had” to go to a certain company to purchase what I needed to secure my financial future.

I was excited to see encouraging statements telling me that I was already doing a great job. There were a few recommendations of things I should consider, but they were put to me in a conversational way. No pressure. I felt like I was chatting with a good friend. Being able to easily access this information is also important to me. I wanted to know that I could go online and change the status of some of my information, which can easily be done with SUM180.

I am really pleased with SUM180. I highly recommend your trying out this service. I know that I will be sharing my experience with my daughter and with my friends too. I want them to feel they have a friend in SUM180 – one that will help guide them on their way to a great future.

If you are interested in trying out SUM180 they are offering a special promotion for a limited time. Use the code SPRING50 and get 50% off the current product offer. Trust me, this is a great deal and you won’t regret signing up.

This post has been sponsored by SUM180. I was provided with product at no charge to sample in exchange for my review. The options expressed in this post are my own. I am in no way affiliated with SUM180 and do not earn a commission or percent of sales.

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Comments

Sounds like a great service, Cynthia. I hadn’t heard of them before, but I’d be interested in their opinions and suggestions. Being prepared for the future and retirement is so critical (and sometimes scary), having access to helpful, not high pressure, advice would be great.

This is such an important topic that so many families avoid. It’s important to start planning early so that once you hit retirement age you are searching to figure out how you are still going to live without working yourself to death!

My parents never spoke about retirement either and it wasn’t until I was in my late 20s that I started to even think about it. Of course, then I had two kids and kicked myself for not starting to save earlier. Thanks for sharing about this!